Her name is Taiga Tzu. We met her when Trinity and I moved into this gorgeous little cottage in the woods, just after our wedding. How to describe Taiga.... You know, she's just plain good people! Nice as can be. She bakes a wildberry pie you wouldn't believe! She and the Mrs. (Yeah, we know, Trinity Faith. We've heard all the jokes, so don't bother!
) are inseperable. They go off together into the woods, walking for hours, talking about... Well, whatever it is women talk about.We had a bit of trouble when she met my people. Some of the boys came over to watch the fight last week. (Brinn, of course, couldn't make it. We're thinking of having an intervention to get him away from that damned tree!) Now, they knew full well what a Forestal is, but they played dumb.
I guess I should explain something. Most of you probably aren't aware that the Haruchai have a racial compulsion to tease. (I guess that makes two racial compulsions.) If you remember when Roger Rabbit was trying to NOT scream Two Bits!, you get the idea. It's all in fun, and we tease each other just as bad. For example, Ceer and Kann (Tull's boy) have been hanging out with a guy named Chun. Not a day goes by that Cail doesn't say, "Hi, Chump," "You're a heck of a fighter, Chump," or something like that. (Of course, mad as he sometimes gets, Chump - er, Chun - isn't fool enough to try to take on someone of Cail's ability!)
So getting back to it, here's Taiga explaining about herself to them, and they're busting her chops! They're saying things like, "What? Your power is singing? Hey, guys, listen to me! I'm a wizard! The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout." And they fall down laughing. I'm like, "Uh, guys, uh, you don't wanna be doing this," but they just ignored me.
Taiga was taking it pretty well, being a sport and all. But she left early, looking a little hurt. And when she did!! I never heard anybody yell like Trinity did! She tore those guys a new one! And they just sat there and took it (although they gave me the old, "Yo, Fist, who wears the Bloodguard robe in your house anyway!" a few days later), because she's the only woman in three universes who can take on an Haruchai. (Why do you think I married her? And fighting isn't the only way she can take on an Haruchai!
)Okay, everybody calmed down, we watched the fight, and the boys went home.
Next morning, I'm walking down the path out of the woods, on my way to work (security guard) and... I tell you, I'm cracking up just remembering it! Hergrom and Chun are hanging upside-down from the very top of a 100-foot Redwood, wrapped up in vines, their mouths stuffed with leaves so I almost missed their muffled cries for help. I ran back to the cottage and pulled Trinity out to see.
She laughed so hard she peed her pants!
Taiga strolls out, all friendly and smiles. Then she looks up and acts surprised to see Hergrom and Chun hanging there, like she didn't know anything about it. She said, "Oh dear, how to get them down from such a height?" Then she gets the I've got it! look on her face, and starts singing: The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout. The vines dropped them, and they fell at least 75 feet before some other vines shot out to break their fall enough for them to land without getting hurt too badly. If you ever saw a Ranyhyn running full out, you know what it was like watching them tear down that path to get out of the woods!
I think life is going to be pretty interesting with Taiga Tzu around.
